How Brosie the Riveter Can Help Solve the Gender Problem in Gaming

Images: Meteor Entertainment/Sam Kirk

Earlier this week, a Tumblr called the Hawkeye Initiative posted a story about an employee at game publisher Meteor Entertainment who pranked her CEO, Mark Long, by swapping out a poster of a scantily clad female mechanic for a custom poster of a scantily-clad male mechanic (illustrated by fellow Meteor employee Sam Kirk) and waited to see the reaction. After the initial surprise, Long thanked her for “calling [him] on [his] bullshit” and decided to hang the posters side-by-side in the office. The story went viral, making the rounds at nearly every major gaming website and scoring nearly 200,000 page reviews. The employee, who goes by the pseudonym K2, spoke about the prank for the first time with Wired, and about what the internet’s reaction to it could say about the best way to approach the gender problem in the gaming industry.

Wired: Why do you think the story has gotten such a viral response–and such a positive one?

K2: Frankly I’m astounded by it. And delighted. We just saw a gender politics dispute go badly, with Donglegate. I suspect that people were ready to hear that there is more than anger and recrimination to the gender discussion. We are all, on all sides of the gender discussion, trying to figure out how to work together and make each other comfortable. This is an example of starting that conversation from a place of camaraderie.

Wired: Have you experienced any backlash because of the story (or the prank) online or in real life?

K2: None at all. I expected it, too. But in fact, the opposite: my workmates have been congratulating me all day. Since the prank went down, and particularly since it went viral, several of my male co-workers have reached out to me to thank me for making them more aware of how gender plays out in the industry. Really. A couple have taken me aside and apologized for things they’ve said or done in the past that, in retrospect, showed a lack of gender awareness. It has been every bit as positive as the environment that lead me to want to play the joke in the first place. That said, it’s true that not all of the things I read in comment threads make me happy. But 80 percent of the dialogue has been positive and interesting. I know Sam and I both feel honored to have sparked this latest phase of the great debate.

Wired: Do you think things are changing for women in the gaming world?

K2: I do and I don’t. I see the games industry, and STEM in general, as being trapped on an event horizon, circling change. I suspect, but don’t know, that some of that is about the difficulty of addressing the elephant in the room. Women walking into a company full of men know we’re going to have to start these conversations and have them over and over and over again. It’s daunting, exhausting, boring, frustrating. The stuff is so obvious to us and we don’t see why it’s not obvious to them. We hear all the bad stories and don’t know where or whether to begin.

Meteor Entertainment is my first gaming company. I’d talked to a lot of geek chicks before I decided to join the industry, and I knew there was a lot of baggage. I was intimidated for sure. Then, on one lunch break trip to a thrift store, I found this giant stuffed rooster. I bought it and stuck it on my desk. Whenever someone asked “what’s up with that?” I’d say “I heard it was much easier to be successful in the gaming industry if you had one of these! So I bought one! Big, huh?” The reactions were hilarious. I could brandish it at people who annoyed me and they’d literally run away. We, and mostly I, laughed some of that tension away. We could joke about the elephant in the room.

That, if anything, is what I hope people are taking from the Brosie story. Playfulness. Because whether or not women are broadly infiltrating STEM and gaming, the men who are coming in are from a very different generation than the last. They’ve grown up around strong female figures. They are listening and they are ready to have this conversation. But we cannot start this or any conversation with yelling. Yelling puts people on the defensive. People on the defensive are scared. Scared people can’t think. I think Jon Stewart said: “it is physically impossible to be scared while laughing.” So let’s laugh. It’s awkward. But let’s laugh about that, among friends. Even when the male co-workers we love do the stuff that reminds us of those Bad Old Days.

Wired: What would you say to other video game companies that want to do better with their approach to gender, both in terms of their games and their office environment?

K2: I would say: start the conversation about what’s appropriate in your company. Implementing Big Sweeping Gender Rules is sometimes necessary, but creating an environment where the dialogue is comfortable can be as good or better. I see this coming up a lot in the comment threads: “so-and-so missed the point. Both posters should go up/come down.” There is no such point. What’s appropriate in a work environment is different, depending on your company or industry’s culture. I myself would rather work in an environment with both posters than with neither. But, it’s different for everybody. The point is just that we find a friendly way to talk about it with each other.

Mark Long, our CEO, set an example that I hope many others follow. Honor feedback that makes you uncomfortable, that you might not even agree with. Extend friendship to the bearer of those tidings. Think about it. Then have the conversation. This conversation, about gender in industry, is going to take many more years. My wish is that we all find our own ways to enjoy the ride.

Wired: You mention an “event horizon,” and I often hear people say that issue of gender in the gaming industry are on the cusp of change. What’s still holding the industry back?

K2: I credit that “cusp of change” state to the scores of amazing gender commentators and bloggers who are out there doing the hard labor. At this point our culture has gotten a strong public dialogue going about the most overt forms of gender inequality: legal rights, violence, that stuff. What’s left is more intangible and pervasive. It’s in the very fabric of our daily interactions. It’s hard to talk about and it’s uncomfortable for everybody.

I love watching commentators experiment with those precepts. I was really honored to be featured on The Hawkeye Initiative, for example. I love [Hawkeye Initiative founder] Skjaldmeyja’s playful, activist attitude and the way she brings it out in her contributors. I’m impressed by the memorability and virality of Alison Bechdel’s “Bechdel Test.” Anita Sarkeesian’s work is making major waves. Some of my favorite feminist commentators are men. I absolutely love the photo shoot that author Jim Hines did with John Scalzi, Mary Kowal, Patrick Rothfuss and Charles Stross. If you want to watch change, this is the space to watch.

What’s holding it back? Lots of things. Cultures are slow to change. The problems are hard to talk about, because we’re calling into question precepts that are culturally ancient. That’s uncomfortable. And, of course, there are still some assholes out there who respond to this topic with public and private threats of violence. They do it because they want to stop the conversation, and sometimes it works. We are all thinking about how we want to deal with that one. I don’t know the answer, myself, but I suspect it will be something that doesn’t involve women yelling. Assholes like yelling. Instead, I suspect it will involve treating those rare voices as what they are: boring, outdated, and irrelevant to the discussion. Certainly it will involve our many hundreds of thousands of male allies unequivocally uniting to shut those voices down when they appear. I’ve had several male co-workers come up to me and volunteer to render the ultimate smackdown, by god, unto anyone who responds to our joke with violence. I love that. And I also love that it hasn’t been necessary.

Wired: What about women who wouldn’t feel comfortable starting these sorts conversations within the culture of their companies within the gaming industry? What do you think is the best approach for them?

K2: It’s a hard question: how do you start a conversation when you’re not comfortable starting a conversation? … Try: the internet! Support one of the many excellent commentators by writing for them and publicizing their work. Working under a pseudonym is a good way to keep the conversation on topic. The internet can try to dodge uncomfortable issues by making it about the person instead of the message. I personally find that just profoundly boring. I’m in it for the discussion about the topic. This misdirection happens to everybody, not just women. Even John Scalzi. He handles it in some very funny ways.

George Takei is another example of an amazing viral internet voice. He’s outspoken about a lot of things that he cares about, really tough and contentious issues. He’s also funny as shit. When I read Takei’s posts, I am filled with humor and friendliness. It makes me always want more. When he raises tough issues, I am ready and willing. I see a large body of gender commentary going the opposite direction. The anger is so thick that nobody can bear to come near the site. Even me, and I love this topic! Don’t get me wrong – I get it. Lots of women have seen some very bad shit in this lifetime. But the anger creates a semi-permeable membrane around that message: it only lets other angry people in. I’m not saying don’t be angry. Sometimes anger is the only sensible thing to feel. I’m saying that if you want your message heard, a spoon full of humor will get you a lot farther. If the Brosie story had been angry, it would never have gone viral.

Outside the internet, there are lots of subtle ways to play with assumptions. You definitely don’t have to–in fact you should not–start with your CEO. Try some low-stakes experiments in playful commentary, among friends. See what happens. You might be surprised.

Wired: Has anything else surprising or heartening come out of this experience and the reactions to it?

K2: Yes, one thing in particular. This article is being shared at least as frequently by men, as by women. I love that. I’d like to think it’s because the article makes them laugh instead of feeling blamed or accused. It makes me want to find more ways to do that.